Nigerian cult ambush kills 46 policemen

Attackers from a secretive cult with links to pagan movements ambushed and killed as many as 46 police officers in central Nigeria.

Fierce fighting between Nigerian troops and suspected Islamist insurgents, Boko Haram, left dozens of dead  Photo: AFP

Detectives are investigating if the gunmen were linked to the country's al-Qaeda offshoot.

A detachment of 60 policemen were on their way to arrest the leader of the Ombatse militia when the group's fighters launched their attack.

At least 23 officers were killed and many were still missing, said Abayomi Akeremale, the police commissioner of Nasarawa State, which lies on the nominal border between Nigeria's Christian south and its Muslim north.

Separate reports said that 46 people were killed, but they could not immediately be verified.

"There was a huge ambush and our men were caught offguard and killed like they were animals," Mr Akeremale said. "Already 23 bodies have been recovered. Most were burnt after they were killed. There are many others who remain unaccounted for."

The Ombatse cult is known to have historic links to animist religions but has recently shifted its focus in line with radical Islamist movements further to Nigeria's north, including Boko Haram.

Like that group, Ombatse has said that it would now target people involved in adultery - as defined within interpretations of strict Islamic law - and those who drink alcohol.

"We decided to send our men to the area to arrest members of Ombatse including their priest," Mr Akeremale said.

"(They) have been going to churches and mosques initiating people into their cult by forcefully administering an allegiance oath to unwilling people."

Hamza Elayo, Nasarawa's Commissioner for Information, said that the authorities had been unconcerned with the movement until its sudden turn to violence.

"Everybody has right to freedom of religion, but when people go about forcing their creed on others in a violent way it becomes unacceptable," he said.

Tuesday's attack, which was only reported on Thursday, took place much further south than ongoing attacks by Boko Haram and Ansaru, a second Islamist militia, in Nigeria's north.

Ansaru has moved its war into the country's centre, however. In January, it attacked a convoy of Nigerian soldiers in Kogi state, south of Abuja, the capital, as they were en route to join African forces fighting in Mali.

More than 3,000 people have died in Boko Haram attacks in the last four years, it has been estimated.